30 September

Dear Middle School Parents,

It was great to see so many parents at the student-parent-teacher conferences in last couple of days. I hope you had some productive conversations with your children and their teachers about what they are doing well, what they need to work on and how to proceed forward. We would like your feedback on the conferences. Please click on this survey and answer a few questions about it.

Where has the time gone? The first two months of school have flown by and we are already into October, which will fly by even more quickly as we have many events coming our way. Along with the Diwali Celebration at the end of the month, middle school will celebrate India Week from the 12-19 October. Students will be going on the ASIAC Music Fest to Mumbai, ASIAC Badminton and Table Tennis will be going to New Delhi and our SAISA Swimmers will be heading to Kathmandu. Wrapping up the month will be the middle school Week Without Walls, where the entire middle school will be off getting to know different parts of Incredible India.

AISC Student Work Exhibited at Harvard University

In their Grade 6 Social Studies class with Mr. Rob Martin last year, Kennedy Porter’s photographs and Lekhana Gogineni’s video from their Out of Eden Project: "Documenting the Everyday" will be featured in a new exhibit, called Uncovering the Everyday: Student work from the Out of Eden Learn Project at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE)'s Gutman Library! Congratulations to Kennedy, Lekhana and Mr. Martin.

Video by Lekhana Gogineni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=914xPVxCaDE

Photo by Kennedy Porter

Below is one of her photos is being used as a promotional postcard for the exhibit!

Trying To Get The Kids To Put Down Those Phones?

Here's Help by Katherine Hobson. To read the entire article in NPR (US National Public Radio), please click on this link. Here are some points to think about:

• Be aware that not all tech is the same.
• Think about the role tech plays in your family life.
• Model good behavior, online and off.
• Have tech-free zones and times.
• Let them learn for themselves.
• Keep an eye out for signs of serious trouble.

Over the break, have an open conversation with  your children about their tech use in and out of school.

Middle School Coffee

Save the date for the next Middle School Coffee on Tuesday, 18 October at 8:45 in the Hall of Light. Our educators will be talking about how to support children be successful in school.

Prototyping Google Classroom

The Grade 8 core teachers are involved in an iLab Innovation Team in which they are exploring the use of Google Classroom as a potential complement or alternative to the Moodle learning management system (LMS). Google Classroom is a relatively new tool from Google that is built into our Google Apps for Education suite. Teachers and students in these classes will explore how the system can facilitate better classroom and parent communication and paperless assignment management.  Please note that this does not mean that all assignment will be paperless in these classrooms. As part of the prototyping process, we may ask you to sign-up to receive notifications from Google Classroom.  

ASIAC Badminton, Table Tennis and Music Fest

Students will be going away to ASIAC Badminton and Table Tennis Tournament in New Delhi and ASIAC Music Fest to Mumbai, right after the fall break. We have many students on the teams and they have been practicing to improve their skills, some are doing it for the first time while others have more experience. The coaches have appreciated the time and dedication that all the players have put forth for the past couple of months. The students on the travelling teams below represent AISC and their teammates for this tournament:

Badminton Coaches: Pradeep Lawrence, K. Suresh Girls Dhivya Sasha Joseph Vijay - Grade 6 Yewon Nam - Grade 7 Nahyeon Ju - Grade 7 Woon Ji Lee _ Grade 8 Sungmin Suh - Grade 8 Subin Choi - Grade 8 Boys Tejas Sridhar-Grade 8 Conner Browne - Grade 8 Namgi Cha - Grade 8 YoungIn Song - Grade 7 Seongsik Yoon - Grade 7 Arjan Chakravarthy - Grade 7	Table Tennis Coaches: Pam Thomson, Paul Gangte Girls Yeon-Woo (Hera) Kwak - Grade 7 Nahyun Kwon - grade 7 Yumi Unoki - Grade 8 E-Shane Chew - Grade 8 Boys Snehan Rathinavel - Grade 8 Aryan Nandagopal - Grade 7 Mintae Kim - Grade 7 Tomoki Okai - Grade 6
Music Fest Chaperones: Debora Lee, Cary Steward, Jason Kennedy and Edwin Roy
Choir Clara Fanny Marie Bouvierd’Yvoire - Grade 6 Shandaneh Penker - Grade 6 Hyewon Choi - Grade 6 Ami Miyamoto - Grade 7 Ai Yasuda - Grade 7 Noa Daryn - Grade 7 Keisha naidoo - Grade 7 Haruna Taniguchi - Grade 7 Ella Jean Hathaway - Grade 7 SeoHyun Park - Grade 7 Charlotte Zoe Michaud - Grade 7 Eunbo Shim - Grade 8 Yoobin Yoon - Grade 8 Miu Kubota - Grade 8 Hee Sun Hwang - Grade 8 Juyang Kim - Grade 8 Meghana Rachamadugu - Grade 8 Anya Sankriti Kumar - Grade 8		Band Seongwon Kim - Grade 6 Min Wook (Eric) Seo - Grade 8 Sungbin Yoon - Grade 8 Daehyeon Song - Grade 8 Dallin Pratt - Grade 8 Lya Ravon - Grade 7 Seoyoung Youn - Grade 7 Rin kato - Grade 8 Ye Won Lee - Grade 8 Yu-Jin Jeung - Grade 8

SAISA Swimming

Congratulations to all of our middle school swimmers who will be travelling to Kathmandu to represent AISC.

Age 10-12 Swimmers	Age 13-14 Swimmers
Christian Horchler Seongwon Kim Yejune (Ted) Chang Finn Wohltmann Gregor Stallkamp Amy Jacob Hayden Zuzulock Seojin Kim Amelie Dowling Paula Stallkamp - Alternate Axel Martins - Alternate	Rin Miura Ben Jacob Hanna Sano Max Jacobson Kennedy Porter Meghana Rachamadugu Hinako Masuda

Have a wonderful time whether you are going somewhere or staycationing in Chennai. Have a great break and see you in October.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson

Middle School Administration

23 September

Dear Middle School Parents,

I hope you are finding these parenting articles that I have been sharing useful. Here is an article from The Wall Street Journal about “What Teens Need Most From Their Parents.” Our experience with the disorganization of middle school students and how friends become central in their world is consistent with what’s written in the article. While there is nothing new in there, the article provides worthwhile reminders what these young people go through is appropriate for their age groups and more importantly, there is advice on how parents can support them.

AISC Kaizen Robotics Competition

On September 16th and 17th, student participants learned to build two robots on their own:

The first one was ‘Manually Controlled Robot’ where the students learned DPDT (Dual Pole Dual Throw) switches to control the movement of the robot they built. Basics of Electronics, Motors, Power Supply and DPDT switches are the learning outcome of the day one.

In the second day, they built a ‘Logic-based Line Follower Robot’ where they learned logic gates, IR Sensors and Motor Drivers. They were able to assemble a line follower robot while honing their wire stripping, joining and insulating skills.

September 18th was the big day where the teams were given a problem with two sections.  Section 1 consisted of a track which is made of a black line on a white surface.  The track had sharp turns and curves.  Section 2 consisted of another track which had three check points.  The objective of the game/competition was for the Robot to travel through the tricky track for section 1 and for section 2, change the robot to a manually controlled, switch driven one and navigate through the second track in the shortest time.

Congratulations to our Middle School students (left to right): Efflam Joseph Rol, Marek Mabry and Sungho Kim for taking First Place at the Kaizen Robotics Competition.

Big Bad Blue Swim Meet

Come out and support our swimmers on Friday afternoon and Saturday. Here are our swimmers from Middle School. We will host 6 local schools and teams and the Stonehill School from Bangalore

Come support the SAISA Swim Team and join in the fun! Go Raptors!!

Friday, Sept. 23 - 3pm-6pm

Saturday, Sept. 24 - 8am-6pm

Grade 6	Grade 7	Grade 8
Christian Horchler Seong Won Kim Finn Wohltmann Gautham Narendar Axel Martins Amy Jacob Hayden Zuzulock Seojin Kim Paula Stallkamp Amelie Dowling Chaeyeun Yoon	Ted (YeJune) Chang Gregor Stallkamp Hanna  Sano Jeongyu Lee Hinako Masuda	Benjamin Jacob Max  Jacobson Rin  Miura Kennedy Porter Meghana Rachamadugu

Week Without Walls Parent Meetings

Grade 6	The Grade 6 teachers would like to invite you to the 6th grade Week Without Walls Parent Information Meeting that will be held on Monday, September 26 from 2:45 to 3.30 pm in the CIC. We will provide you with all the necessary information for our upcoming trip and we will be happy to answer your questions. Thank you!
Grade 8	The Grade 8 Teaching Team would like to invite parents of grade 8 students to an informational meeting about our Week Without Walls(WWoW) trip on Wednesday, September 28 from 2:45-3:30 in the Black Box Theater (BBT). We will share details of the WWoW Trip and answer any questions.

Grade 8 Parents: HS Parent Coffee

The next High School Parent Coffee will be on Tuesday, September 27th in the BBT.  The presentation will be about “life as an upperclassman: considering course load for college readiness.” This coffee is most appropriate for grade 8, 9 and 10 parents who want to learn how to navigate our curriculum guide and academic programs to create an academic plan that will support their student in being ready for university!  Our AP/IB Coordinator, counselors and I will present and leave plenty of time for questions.

Diwali Mela

Your PCA Team is currently planning the entertainment for Diwali Mela.  Last year ASA groups were able to showcase some of their talents at the Diwali Mela, no matter what the content.  Due to time/space constraints, as well as wanting to focus on South Indian Diwali festival of light celebrations, we are planning to showcase performances focused on traditional Indian culture including music and dance.

Diwali Mela is scheduled for November 5, 2016 from 5-8pm. We are planning on a maximum of one-hour for all performances including time for professional dancer and/or special guests. We will have 10-12 openings for performances with each slot limited to 3 minutes maximum.  We will give priority to AISC students, AISC Parents, then AISC faculty/staff.

Anyone who would like to apply can fill out the form below! The deadline for entries is Friday, September 30, 2016. https://goo.gl/forms/Bl46vOHL0YY31qpl2

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson

Middle School Administration

16 September

Dear Middle School Parents,

As a middle school principal, I like to tell people that I have about 200 kids, which is true in many ways. I think I spend as much time reading about parenting as most parents do. A couple of weekends ago, I read this an article from National Public Radio (NPR) from the US about “How to Raise Brilliant Children According to Science,” which is based on a book, Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children. The authors of the book talk about what we should be reporting on: collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence. While we do not exactly match our report card, our learning habits and reporting standards do hit on these areas and more. Click on the link to read more about it. How do you complement what children are learning in school?

The article is timely as we welcome parents to the first mid-trimester Learning Habits Update.  You should have received an email from your child with a link to their eportolio. If you have not received it yet, please ask your child to share it with you immediately. For the Learning Habits Update:

• Students individually conferenced with teachers to go over their Learning Habits.
• In Advisory, students individually conferenced with their advisor and look at the overall pattern of their Learning Habits
• Then they wrote a reflection on how their Learning Habits affect their academic performance.

What you see on their Learning Habits Update is an honest reflection of what your child has thought of his or her attitudes and attributes to learning thus far. We invite you to log on to your child's eportolio to look at their Learning Habits Update and have a conversation with them as well. We encourage you to peruse the blog posts on their eportfolio as well.

Should you have any specific questions about it, please email their teachers and advisors directly.

What are Learning Habits?

One of the aspects of moving to a Standards-Based Grading and Reporting system is to separate the behavior from the academic achievement. Therefore, we will be giving feedback on student’s behavior using the four words, with its description below to indicate how frequently they display these attributes. In addition to the feedback that students are getting from the assignments, students will receive their first update about how these attributes contribute to their learning.

Preparation	Student actively plans for learning activities, displays effective organization and manages their time well.
Engagement	Student actively participates in learning activities and is communicative about their thinking and learning.
Collaboration	Student works with all peers by showing respect and compassion in a diverse classroom environment.
A Growth Mindset	Student can thoughtfully self-asses and strives for continual improvement.

Early Release Wednesday

Next Wednesday, 21 September, we will have another Early Release Day. Students are expected to depart campus in a timely and organized fashion. We appreciate your patience with traffic on these days. In preparation, please plan on allowing longer time for entry and exit to the school at release time. For our Middle School students, hot lunch will be served.

Annual Big Bad Blue

Friday, Sept. 23 - 3pm-6pm

Saturday, Sept. 24 - 8am-6pm

We will host 6 local schools and teams and the Stonehill School from Bangalore.

Come support the SAISA Swim Team and join in the fun!

Week Without Walls Parent Meetings

Grade 6	The Grade 6 teachers would like to invite you to the 6th grade Week Without Walls Parent Information Meeting that will be held on Monday, September 26 from 2:45 to 3.30 pm in the CIC. We will provide you with all the necessary information for our upcoming trip and we will be happy to answer your questions. Thank you!
Grade 7	Parents of 7th grade students are asked to attend the 7th grade Week Without Wall Parent Information Meeting to be held on Wednesday, September 21 from 1:15 - 2:00 pm in the CIC. We will share details about the trip and answer questions you may have! We look forward to seeing you there!
Grade 8	The Grade 8 Teaching Team would like to invite parents of grade 8 students to an informational meeting about our Week Without Walls(WWoW) trip on Wednesday, September 28 from 2:45-3:30 in the Black Box Theater (BBT). We will share details of the WWoW Trip and answer any questions.

Save the Date - Upcoming  HS Parent Coffee

The next High School Parent Coffee will be on Tuesday, September 27th in the BBT.  The presentation will be about “life as an upperclassman: considering course load for college readiness.” This coffee is most appropriate for grade 8, 9 and 10 parents who want to learn how to navigate our curriculum guide and academic programs to create an academic plan that will support their student in being ready for university!  Our AP/IB Coordinator, counselors and I will present and leave plenty of time for questions.

Introducing Celebration of Learning

As part of our commitment to continue to educate parents about the learning that takes place in the school. Middle School students will be presenting some of their assignments during the Student-Parent-Teacher conferences on Friday, 30 September in the Hall of Light from 10:00 - 12:00pm.

AISC Photo Gallery

After all the different events in the school, you can find the photos in our SmugMug AISC Photo Gallery. About a week or so after each event, we will upload the photos into the gallery. Access it with the password: raptors16

Main Gallery: http://photos.aischennai.org/2016-2017

Pool Party: http://photos.aischennai.org/2016-2017/MS-Pool-Party/

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Alan Phan & Andrew Ranson

Middle School Administration